Development of virtual reality snowboard system for therapeutic exercise

In recent years, people have concern for their health. Especially elderly people have such tendency in the aging society. Appropriate exercises are important to maintain their health. In this paper, we develop the virtual reality snowboard system for whole body exercise and rehabilitation. Users can continue exercises pleasantly since the virtual reality snowboard system has amusement. In addition, we propose a methodology to provide the appropriate exercise corresponding to the personal condition by using the proposed virtual snowboard system. In the training, the longitudinal and lateral distances of sets of the flags and torque exerted on the board are controlled based on the user´s conditions. Finally, we would show the effectiveness of our proposed method by measuring the heart rates, oxygen uptake and EMG signal of the lower limbs. It is shown that the exercise strength is enough for the training and the strength can be controlled by changing the positions of flags and torque by measuring the heart rates, oxygen uptake and EMG signals of lower limbs while playing snowboard.